Every day, more and more people choose to have an apartment or condo for themselves. Some may say it’s affordable and some would say it’s more convenient especially if they are living alone. However, there are pros and cons on this type of lifestyle, one of which is the limited space provided for the occupant. The more things, furniture, and patterns you have in your room, the more cluttered it will feel. Here are some tips on how you could create an illusion of more space to reflect openness and movement for the whole area:

Furniture

Every household owns a sofa, drawers or even bookshelves. No matter how small or big your house is, you always get these pieces of furniture. Most of them are big and occupy more space than any other ornaments at home. In order to create an illusion of more space, it is ideal to raise them up by putting some wooden or steel legs that will make a sense of dynamism and appears to float in space – giving open and airy feels to the whole room.

Mirrors

The best way to use your mirrors at home is to create a trick of larger space by reflecting light, a view back into the room and an illusion of extra window or door. Decorators would often use over-sized mirrors and place it near a window for an easy access of natural light giving the room a sense of openness. A mirror causes the eye to travel around the room making it feel larger.

Curtains

Curtains with dark colors, heavy materials and fabrics would block the natural light from the outside and absorb weight, making the room look tight and small. Minimizing the use of curtains would allow the eye to take the view from the outside and make the space simple. If you can’t avoid using curtains, consider cloth blinds, shutters or curtains that are made of lightweight material like linen. Also, use a bar that extends beyond the window frame so you could expose the whole window once you open them.

Paint Colors

When dealing with small rooms, light colors are perfect for walls and ceiling – simplifies space and emphasizes the architecture. It makes the room airy and calm too. Pastel colors or even white could blur the boundaries between walls and ceilings, causing your eyes to look straight up and make the ceiling seem higher. If you want to express your creativity, you can use bold colors in one part of the room. Just make sure it complements the other interiors you have at home.

Stripes

Vertical stripes elongate the space within the room, creating an illusion of movement and flow. For instance, putting a striped rug will make the room appear longer. Even for flooring, putting the hardwood in a vertical position will maximize the floor space and will cause an optical effect of wider space.

Multi-purpose Items

These versatile items can be bought or made. There are a lot of DIY furniture makeovers that could transform one piece to another with multiple functions. This will save space in your room, and since they are multi-purpose, you can make use of them however you want to, depends on your needs. It also saves money since you don’t need to buy a separate item for a different usage.

Renovations can be more challenging and time-consuming than new construction because you don’t know what exist until you begin to take the house piece by piece. Once apart, you can see a lot of challenging and unforeseen circumstances. Usually, projects may take longer than you think and cost more than what you have expected. Remember, you get what you pay for. There will be a lot of decision makings and factors that need to be considered before renovating your property like the designs, sub contractions, permits, unforeseen conditions, weather, availability of the materials and their quality.

The renovation process between a residential and commercial construction is dramatically different from each other. The workload involved varies on the type of area you want to have the renovation done and how complex it would be. So here are some major differences between the two:

COMMERCIAL RENOVATION

Commercial Renovation deals with more sophisticated makeover which may require demolition and rebuilding procedures, a significant number of staffs for any reconstruction works and a higher budget to meet client’s expectations. From metal framing, the density of the concrete to exact cable wiring, these factors needed to be finalized by your contractor. While doing the renovation, expensive and heavy equipment are going to be used, a major factor why costs will become higher.

RESIDENTIAL RENOVATION

Most of the time, residential renovation means doing a home makeover or remodeling – might be extreme or just changing a small part of your house and add more style to it. Renovating one or two units may be considered as a residential renovation which doesn’t require bigger equipment. Your budget for the project will also depend on results you are expecting. For instance, you want to replace the furniture and upgrade your appliances, or you wish to add a fireplace in your living room and change your flooring details.

Have you ever thought of turning your old furniture from trash to cash? Rather than throwing your old furniture, learn how to give your old drawer a modern makeover and make it as one of your precious gem for interior design at home. Doing a makeover is not as easy as buying a new one, but at least you don’t have to spend some penny, and it’s going to be more fun! Here are some helpful tips for an easy breezy makeover.

GET STARTED

Always prepare the piece that you are going to work on. Whether it be sanding or even as simple as making sure that those drawers and hardware are still working properly. It doesn’t matter what you choose to do the makeover, a kitchen cabinet, chair, bookshelves, or dresser – you’ll want to start by wiping the dust and dirt off from the piece by using a light soapy water and smooth cloth. Once it is dry, try to assess the piece and look for some part that needs more attention. Maybe an uneven surface that needs more stroke of paint or a replacement perhaps. Make sure that you are ready when it comes to those tools that you are going to use for the makeover. One tool can make or break your makeover and affects the wear and tear of the whole piece.

MIX AND MATCH

Have a good look of the room where you want your new furniture to be featured. Consider mixing colors and what kind of mood do you want to achieve once the makeover is done. Sometimes, you have to blend the color of your wall to your furniture. Are there specific color palette that appears over and over? Do you have one color that you like the most? These questions might help you decide which colors you want to apply to your project. Don’t forget that just because you like a color doesn’t mean it is necessarily ideal for your piece.

Also, consider the location where you want to put your new piece after. The natural light that will be reflected inside the room might also affect the colors that you want to use. Another way to choose which colors you want to use to your furniture is to take the hue from an object that you already own. Ideally, if you love an item, then you will surely want to have the same color reflected elsewhere in the room.

PAINT AND BRUSH

The most basic advice is to use a decent and a good quality brush. It does make a difference in the neatness of the finished paint. You don’t want to clean up those brush hairs after each stroke that you will be doing on your furniture. Match your brushes to the sizes of the furniture that you want to do the makeover. If it’s going to be your first time to paint furniture, start with a free and cheap piece that you can feel free to experiment on. It’s a learning process really.

If you are going to paint drawers, remove the drawer’s pulls before painting and apply some tapes over the hole on the inside of the drawer so paint doesn’t leak into the drawer. Number the drawers when you remove them from the dresser. In that way, you won’t be confused on which on comes next when you are done.

For painting the furniture, let the furniture speaks to you! It’s easy to splash some colors on your piece but to really make a piece pop and stand out, sometimes the piece has to lead you in the direction. Start from the bottom and work your way up. Use small wood blocks to lift your piece off the ground for the easier painting of legs. Don’t paint on the interior top or sides of the drawers. Just a thin layer of stroke will work so the drawers will still fit back to where it should be put back. Put less brush stroke when the paint is dry.

HAVE PATIENCE

Take a few minutes to lightly sand the piece. We all want to get right to the fun stuff of painting your piece, but the paint will stick fast on the furniture if the surface is roughed up a little bit. After painting your piece, don’t rush to put back all the missing piece on it right away. Wait for the paint to dry in all surfaces. That way, you won’t make some damages on your newly makeover furniture. Don’t forget to remove unnecessary tapes or cover ups that you attached on the furniture. If it’s not needed, you have to cast if off.